British Television/Entertainment

It started with the Monty Python Movies.  In high school and college, I loved the Monty Python movies, Life of Brian being my favorite.  I loved when I would throw out a quote from one and someone would get it.  My sophomore year of college, I signed up for a sophomore lit with honors course and within the first month, my professor- a quirky, hilarious man that resembled Papa Smurf- was standing on a chair and reciting with utmost theatricality,

"What was that?"

" I think it was, 'Blessed are the cheese makers,' "

"What's so special about the cheese makers?"

"Well obviously it was not meant to be taken literally.  It refers to any manufacturers of dairy products."

I knew I was going to LOVE that class!

And I did.

So, my first love was Monty Python.

Now, I already understood that not everyone gets British humor. Not everyone laughs at Monty Python.  And we found out later, that even within the British populace, they are very diverse in their humor.

For instance,while living in England from 1998-2000, DJ and I discovered Father Ted.  We LOVED Father Ted (and still do)!  Father Ted was an Irish sitcom about three priests exiled to the less-than-desirable location of Craggy Island and living together in the parochial house with their housekeeper Mrs. Doyle.  This show can still put me in stitches, and featured some hilarious appearances by Graham Norton.  However, Ardal O'Hanlon stole the show with his portrayal of the daft, naive and childlike young priest, Father Dougal McGuire.  And our English neighbors didn't care for the show.

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During our twelve years in New Jersey, I frequently watched BBC America and discovered the old sitcom Keeping Up Appearances.   Another funny one starring Patricia Routledge as the colossal snob, Hyacinth Bucket (which she constantly reminds other is pronounced Bouquet and NOT Buck-et).   She is always aspiring to climb the social ladder and "putting on airs" while making a fool of herself.

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While working at a law firm in New Jersey, one of my fellow coworkers and fellow British humor enthusiasts was discussing Fawlty Towers with me. I had heard of it, but incredibly, had never seen it.  Luckily, he owned the entire box set and loaned it to me to bring me up to speed.  Another gem in my book.

In 2011, PBS in the United States began airing the latest British drama, Downton Abbey.  I heard talk of it, felt I would like it, but never seemed to catch it when it was on. And besides, it wasn't British humor.  It was a drama.  I don't normally like dramas. Nevertheless, this past winter, I started watching Season 1 through my Netflix account.  I quickly became hooked and watched Season 2 with the rest of America last spring.  In April, we found out we would be moving to the UK again in August and I was very excited to realize that I would get to watch Season 3 of Downton Abbey starting in September whereas America must wait until January!  I have been enjoying Season 3 over here and must say (without giving away spoilers to my American friends) that it is so very exciting this year!  Shirley MacLaine makes an appearance in the beginning of the season playing Cora's mother visiting from New York for Matthew and Mary's wedding. The dynamics between Shirley and Maggie Smith who plays the Dowager Countess are fantastic!  Maggie Smith remains my favorite character on the show, though. She has some of the best lines!

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Shortly after arriving in the UK, I saw a commercial advertising a new sitcom called "Moone Boy". Just the 30 second blip seemed pretty funny, so I set the DVR to record it when it aired.  An Irish sitcom about an awkward 12-year-old boy growing up in a rural Irish town in the late 1980's with an imaginary friend, Moone Boy did not disappoint.  DJ and I found ourselves eagerly awaiting Friday nights so we could see the latest episode.  Since it was the first "trial" season, sadly, it has already ended, but with plans for another season and filming underway.  I can't wait until it airs again!  One of my favorite lines is from episode five, entitled, "Godfellas".  Martin, the main character, decides at his confirmation that he wants to be an altar boy as he thinks they are the coolest boys at church and due to a vacancy, he becomes one.  He does well and is going to be allowed to do Holy Thursday, so, along with his imaginary friend (Sean) he begins to practice furiously and while practicing crossing himself and his genuflect, Sean says:

"Good genuflect!  You don't wanna fall toward the altar! Keep it short and sharp! You wanna keep the ecumenical economical! You want to leave the congregation reeling at your kneeling, son!"

And within the same episode, Martin's sister takes a liking to the choir director and joins the choir.  As she is walking around practicing her hymns and Martin is practicing his genuflects, their parents are watching horrified.

 (Martin's Dad) "So we've raised an altar boy AND a choir singer?"

(Martin's Mom) "Where did we go wrong?"

(Dad) "I suppose that's the risk you take when you have children IN wedlock."

When Moone Boy went off, we were lost.

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 That is until we discovered Friday Night Dinner.  We've only just discovered it.  I will have to get back to you on how it pans out.  So far, so good.

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Do you like British humor/television programs/movies?

If so, what are your favorites (if I haven't heard of it, I will check it out and if you are looking for something new, you can look up the shows I have mentioned)?

Our English House- Part 1

I imagine this post will be months in the making.  So, I will just post it in parts. As mentioned in my last post, we still have rooms and boxes to sort out and we are going to have to acquire some furniture pieces.

Before we even arrived in England, I was perusing a rental site and found this house and was in love with it along with two others. By the time we got here, the other two were rented already.  This one was above our rent cap, so we looked at a few properties we managed to find within our rent cap and I was sorely disappointed.  One was a nice size, within a quiet little village in the area where we were looking.  It was cozied up right next to the pub and had a two car garage and a decent back garden.  However, when we walked upstairs to see the rooms, there was the distinct smell of cat pee.  That put me off!  That and all the ants downstairs just right outside the front door.  I didn't want those little boogers getting in!

So- we went on to the next property.  An old home in the village where the kids would be going to school with a HUGE back garden full of flowering fruit trees.  DJ was immediately disappointed that it had no garage, though.  We walked inside and it was VERY old.  It smelled old and musty, most of the rooms were very dark and the bathroom upstairs had a MAROON bathtub, sink and toilet.  The total deal breaker for me was the fact that it used to be two cottages and so the upstairs was divided.  This meant that two rooms were on one side and two on the other.  One kid would get to sleep on the side with us and the other would be separated from us.  To get to the "other upstairs" and the other child, one would have to walk downstairs, down the hallway and back up another set of stairs.  I didn't like that at all.

But the house slightly above our rent cap was still available, so we made an appointment to come see it.  And we fell in LOVE with it!  It is two hundred years old- built in 1812- and has loads of history with it. (I realize that being excited about a two hundred year old home in England is kind of like being excited about a house built in the 1970's in the states- relatively speaking, it isn't THAT old- but I still find it exciting!)

 Here is the house! It was originally a blacksmith's shop and home.  There are still some large iron hooks hanging form the ceiling in the house that were left over from this period.  There is a barn-like building in the back that is now just used for storage, but the remains of the furnace from the blacksmith shop can still be seen.  At some point, it was also a sweets shop and a jewelry store.  The door you see on the left, was the door that went into the shop and the door on the right enters into the entry hall.  The room that was the shop is now the living room and so that door on the left is a built-in bookcase on the inside.  There is not a door on the inside- but the mail slot is in that door and therefore, our mail comes in through our bookcase.  What a fun little quirk!

That cross you see in front of the house, points down the road toward the spot where the airfield was during WWII.  The air field has been returned to agriculture and there is nothing at the end of our road but farmland now, but the cross stands as a reminder and a memorial to those that served in the Royal Air Force and were stationed at the RAF base that used to be in our village. 

The picture below is the back side of the house.

Here is another picture of the cross with a view up the street into the village.  You can see half our house on the right side of the picture and the spire of St George's, the village church up the road.

Here is a better picture of St George's Church:

Now, we will step inside for a look at a few of the rooms that are put together.

When you walk in the back door, immediately to your right, is the kitchen.  Of course there is no laundry room, so the washer and dryer are in the kitchen.  

I am having a bit of trouble getting used to the electric stove and oven- we had gas in New Jersey, but I am sure I will get it eventually.  The black thing on the wall is an old bread oven.  It doesn't work anymore, but the owner left it there for character. It is really cool.

There is also no pantry/cupboard, so I am thankful for all these cabinets- room for dishes, pots, pans, cups and all the groceries.

 You can see the back door from this view- it is a stable door, so you can open the whole thing, just the top or just the bottom.

 Since there is no laundry room, there is no dryer vent.  So, the dryer is a condenser dryer.  That translates to the fact that there is a water tank in it that I have to empty after each load.  It is really surprising how much water comes out of the clothes during the drying cycle.  Electricity is expensive and the dryer sucks a lot of it, so when it is a nice day, you hang your clothes out on the line.  When I have to use the dryer, it has a delay feature, so I can set it to start after midnight when rates are cheaper.

 British refrigerators are small.  The top is the fridge and the bottom is the freezer.  This means we cook less (amount not frequency), so there are fewer leftovers.  You have to pick which leftovers you really want to save and then eat them quickly, and there is no room for gallon-sized milk or pitchers. That means more trips to the store to get milk.

The downstairs also consists of the living room,dining room and office.  Those rooms will be revealed in a later installment of this post.

Upstairs, we have four bedrooms and a bathroom.  The guest room and bathroom have not been put together yet and are not picture-worthy.  (again- this will be forthcoming in another post)

When you arrive at the top of the stairs, the first room you come to, is Zoe's room. It was already painted a nice shade of green and at first, she complained that she didn't like it.  But once we got her stuff in there, I think it is growing on her.  I love it!

 Most of the lights here in rooms are a single bulb hanging from the ceiling and you just purchase a decorative shade to go over it.  In order to let Zoe personalize her room, we let her pick out the shade- of course she picked a shiny, sparkly pink one.

The next room you come to is ours.  It is currently the only room with pictures hanging, but that is because there were already hooks on the walls in there. The fireplaces in the house are purely ornamental- they have all been capped off.  That bums me out a little as a fire would probably help with heating this place and cut down on the moisture in the house, but it isn't our house and I don't know what all went into restoring it.  It may have cost too much to fix chimneys or make the fireplaces where they were able to work again.  I don't know. But, at least the mantles were left and they still add character to the rooms.  (There are four- one in the living room, one in the office, one in this bedroom and another one in the dining room.  The dining room, though, has a wood burning stove in the fireplace that does work.)

The pictures hanging on the wall are paintings we bought the last time we were stationed in England.  We took two trips to Paris and we purchased these two paintings in Montmartre during one of the visits.   The one on the left is of Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart)- located at the top of Montmartre (Martyr's Mount) and the picture on the right is a rainy scene of Notre Dame.  We designed our entire bedroom (back in the States) around these pictures- going for a French country feel. I think it works here too.

 There are no closets in the house.  This presented a logistical problem as we had A LOT of stuff in our hall closet and bedroom closet in New Jersey.  The base loans us wardrobes, which are bulky and ugly.  We got three of them and stuffed them in the guest room.  One contains DJ's clothes, one contains mine and the third has DJ's uniforms.  Here is a built-in in our bedroom- it has to be left open (as opposed to putting a door or curtain over it) because it is very damp in there.  That is also a reason why you wouldn't want to fold clothes and stack them in there.  All of my shoes, however, are in plastic shoeboxes, so I stacked them in here along with some other various items like my purses all on top.  The plastic drawers on bottom contain makeup, hair stuff, socks and underwear.  The black basket has hot rollers, curling irons, flat irons etc and the little basket next to it contains moisturizers, hairspray, perfumes, etc.

The next room you come to is the guest room, but I already told you it isn't ready yet, so we will skip that one.

Next, is Noah's room.  It has a massive built-in unit that we were able to put Noah's clothes in one section, Zoe's clothes in another and all of our coats, jackets and winter gear in the third.

 That is the door into his bedroom.

 That door in the corner just has the hot water heater in it.

The built-in that contains the kids' clothes and all of our winter gear.

The days are getting shorter and shorter here and we will soon be enveloped by the dark and dampness that is winter.  Our back garden is pretty fabulous too, so I have spring to look forward to, when I can take you outside to see the garden.

The office is nearing completion and my next target is my craft room which is outside in the back yard. Those will probably be the next post about the house.  I can't wait to show you the rest of our house!!

Catching Up

Several weekends ago we visited Sandringham, the Queen's country residence in Norfolk.  It is only about an hour from where we live and has been a home of four generations of monarchs since 1862.  If you saw the movie, The King's Speech, it was the house where George gave his Christmas Day speech behind the velvet curtain.  (We actually saw the curtain!!)  The Queen herself spends Christmas there every year and attends service at the nearby church. The public comes out every year to see her headed to or from church and the little girls hand her flowers.

It was funny, because the house is huge and yet we were being reminded by the tour guides constantly that it is meant to be a hunting lodge, a small country retreat.  I guess compared to a palace, it is small, but still....  I did find it very cozy for such a large house, though, and can imagine how wonderful it must be to spend Christmas there.  Photographs inside are not allowed, but I did get a few from the outside.

When you enter the grounds, you can either take the direct path to the house or the Woodland Walk.  Of course, we took the Woodland Walk. Along the beautifully manicured path dotted with many flowering plants, including my favorite- hydrangeas, there was a clearing giving us a glimpse of the house:

 We then came upon a large beautiful redwood tree with this plaque.  It reads, "Wellingtonia Gigantica planted by Princess Christian of Denmark 2nd November 1863".

 Here is the tree:

 Then we came into a clearing where we got a full view of the house:

It is interesting to note that there is no direct route to Sandringham. The approach is through a lot of winding, country roads through rural Norfolk.  DJ and I were arguing about how the Queen gets there.  I couldn't imagine her riding from London to here as it would take several hours.  DJ said he thought she would want to ride in and enjoy the view of her countryside.  I remarked that she's been queen of that countryside for sixty years, didn't he think maybe she had seen it enough by now?  So, upon entering the house, that is the first question I asked one of the guides.  She told us that usually the Queen takes the train into nearby King's Lynn and then car from there.

 Up close, right before we entered:

 Some of the cars on display out in the museum area:

 A picture of the backside of the house:

It was beautiful and full of history, portraits and artifacts from different reigns.  Since it is a hunting lodge, there is an extensive gun collection on display in the house as well. 

Of course there are the important things too. When you enter the house, you are stepping straight into the saloon.  There is no great entryway or hall as it was not meant to be a house for entertaining, but simply a hunting lodge or comfortable family retreat in the country.  While standing in the saloon, the guide was telling us that while the Queen is in residence, the fire in the fireplace is always burning and they like to sit around the fire, talk and watch television.  Of course Noah's hand immediately shot up.  

"Where's the television!?"

Priorities.

It was hidden in a television cabinet in the corner by the fireplace.  It pops up when they want to view it and goes back in when not in use.

I have found another article on the house that is very good and descriptive if you are interesting in reading it.  You can find it here.

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Two weekends ago, we went to Audley End House for apple weekend.  This was another impressive house.  Once again, we were not permitted to take photos inside the house, so I only have a couple of the outside, but the article I linked to above will give you a few details about it.  

At one point, we were standing in a very grand room filled with portraits of people that had owned the home and their ancestors.  Zoe, tugged on my shirt and I leaned down to hear what she had to say.

"Mommy?  Are all these people dead?"

I affirmed that they were and she stood there for a minute, quiet, and then:

"Wow! Who killed them all??"

Hahaha.  The mind of a child.

Feeding the ducks:

 In the stables, they had a dress-up area, Zoe loved it.

 Noah, not-so-much

 Come on, Noah, SMILE!

 Fine, I'll take it!

We walked around the orchard, the gardens and sampled some honey fudge that was amazing!  We even walked away with a bottle of blackberry wine.

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Next up: as my previous post, indicated, we finally got our furniture!  I have managed to put together the kids' rooms as well as ours and take pictures.  The living room is pretty much put together, except we need a book case or cabinet to house the Sky (satellite) box, Wii, DVD player and all the remotes, cables and plugs.  There was no place for our tv cabinet in the living room as there is a tv mount over the fireplace mantle.  Right now all the stuff is sitting on the mantle and driving me nuts.  

We also need to purchase a computer desk so we can sort the office out.  The kitchen is sorted, but I won't take a picture of it until the office is sorted and I can get all the stuff off my kitchen counter and into the office.  We also need to eventually get a double bed to set up in the guest room.  It is all a work in progress.  I imagine it will take some time.

My Stuff! My Stuff! How Bazaar!

Okay- first of all- our American car arrived!  YAY!  Matilda JuneBug is back in our possession.  I missed her!

Secondly, just a few days shy of two months in transit, OUR HOUSEHOLD GOODS HAVE ARRIVED!  We were able to finally get rid of this lovely loaner furniture:

Now, unpacking everything and putting it away, is another story.  We are making steady progress, but there are still a lot of boxes to be unpacked and things to be put away. The fact that this house does not contain one single closet is putting a kink in my system.  We had quite a bit of stuff in our hall closet and bedroom closet in NJ and now I have to find a place to put all of that stuff!

the moving truck in front of our living room window:

boxes in the kitchen:

 boxes in the living room:

The other challenge is that I cannot simply put a nail in the wall and hang my pictures.  The house is old- two hundred years old- and the outer walls are plaster over chalk and the inner walls are plaster.  Translation: they are hard and a hole must be drilled in them with a masonry bit.

I still can't find the table legs to the end table in the living room.  I have no idea where they are.  I am sure they are stuffed in some random box ( I found my sweaters yesterday in a box out in the garage marked, "craft supplies".  There were craft supplies in the box, WITH MY SWEATERS) and I just have to find them.

Friday night, they had a holiday bazaar on base with loads of vendors, carnival rides and food.  The kids got a taste of Texas with a frito pie and DJ and I got a taste of Louisiana with a bowl of chicken and sausage gumbo.  I was skeptical at first. DJ interviewed the guy selling the gumbo before we bought some.  After feeling satisfied with his answers- he is from a small town near Opelousas and he does put file in the gumbo- we purchased two bowls and promptly devoured them.

While walking around the bazaar, we found a vendor that had various watercolors and prints of those watercolors featuring local village scenes.  We quickly found a few of our village, featuring the pub, the church, etc when Noah noticed one featuring the cross.  The cross is located right in front of our house- Cross Hill, our house is called Crosshill house- and points down the road running beside our house to the location of the old air fields used for RAF Methwold during WWII. The airfields were eventually shut down and the land was returned to agriculture. If you walk down the road now, you will just find an enormous expanse of farmland where the air field used to be.  The only reminder of it's presence is the cross at Cross Hill.

So, Noah found the print that had the cross and we noticed that in the right corner of the print, was half our house.  Of course we had to buy it! The house we are living in is the orange-ish colored house in the right corner of the picture.

Here is an actual picture taken looking at the cross and up toward town centre and St. George's Church.

I still owe you a post about our visit to Sandringham and now add to that our visit to Audley End House.  Both houses do not allow photos on the inside, so I only have a few of the outside.  I also hope to have a post of our put-together house for you soon.  In order for that to happen, I must get off this computer and go unpack some more!

Cheers!